Marathon Meeting

Well the last board meeting was an absolute marathon as we only got out of there at 10pm! First up we had a report from Damien Hill about the Racquets SA club (this is the bar/gaming/bistro establishment owned by Squash SA that provides Squash SA with its cash flow - yes very important). Everything is looking good at the club with it meeting expected budget targets. We had a discussion about a proposed improvement of creating a larger car park to enable the club to grow and better service its customers. For those that have attended the pennant awards night at Racquets SA I'm sure you can appreciate that the small existing car park fills up very quickly. Squash SA already owns several of the flats and houses surrounding the car park so we have the capacity to knock down those houses and enlarge the car park. We will be looking at the detailed costs and projected financial gains next meeting but if it all looks good we will most likely go ahead. It will also include better lighting so patrons feel safe walking through the car park at night.

Next we had Des Panizza the Squash SA Development Manager in to present on the progress of the Bullseye program aimed at getting school kids participating in an ongoing squash program. The program involves

1. Offer a free squash activities session at the school using the very fun (yes I've used these) inflatable courts. It's like playing squash inside a bouncy castle!
2. Invite the kids to a 'Smash & Bash' session at the local courts.
3. Promote the junior programs going at the local courts.
   

One of the issues Des is currently having is transporting the inflatable courts as he is the only one with towing experience so we may look at sourcing alternative transportation options for the courts. Des is also involved with the Active After Schools program doing 2 classes leading into the after school sessions. The government provides some funding for the Active After Schools program.

The tournament calendar was brought up with several changes from last year. Squash SA will now be paying better rates to courts and will also offset the cost to the players. This will make tournaments more attractive to courts and players.  The locations of the tournaments will  be drafted with fair and equal allocation of events to courts. We will consider the tournament draw next meeting. We had a discussion on whether the SA Open should be a PSA/WISPA event (which means more prize money and interstate/international elite players), but the general feeling was that we want to focus more on grass-roots in SA and encourage our own players. This discussion was carried over to be discussed further at the December meeting.

Squash Australia is about to unveil its national IT strategy and the Squash Links program (that will replace the current Squash Matrix). This will allow everyone to register and make payments online, rather than having to get chased by your clubs and Squash SA. Stay tuned for more details. The Board is keen to see the new system put through its paces.

Most of you probably know that we own a very nice glass show court that gets used for various tournaments. It was bought for the Commonwealth Games and was immediately hired to offset the cost. We now own it outright. Various hire deals from other state and NZ were meant to follow but fell through for one reason or another. We have been making use of it here in SA for the last three years at the Australian Open but it has mostly been sitting in storage apart from that. We would love to see this court get more action and used as a centrepiece to raise awareness of the sport. Ideas being tossed around are getting the court set up in the city (Rundle Mall??) or down the beach for a week with a bunch of elite show matches, audience participation etc. Very exciting stuff!!

On the governance side of things we are taking a good hard look at how things are run and will be approaching the Department of Recreation and Sport to assist with the cost of a governance audit and constitutional review.

And lastly the Board sends it warmest wishes for a speedy recovery to Ben Werchon, one of our star juniors who was recently involved in a serious accident. We're all thinking of you Ben!

That's all for now, if you want the full minutes from any meeting just ask your club as they are sent out every month. We also make a hard copy for those life members who haven't made it into the digital age :)